COLUMBUS, Ohio AP – The national impact of the unprecedented halting of a rapist’s execution after two hours and temporary reprieves for other condemned inmates likely will become clear over the next few months as courts examine the state’s lethal-injection procedures, experts say.
Gov. Ted Strickland ordered the five-month reprieves to give the prisons department more time to update protocols for dealing with long delays in finding suitable veins on inmates for injecting lethal chemicals. The order represents only a brief moratorium, since inmates still are scheduled to die in December, January and February.
